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Friday, September 6, 2013

“Words and pictures can work
together to communicate more powerfully than either alone.”William
Albert Allard

American Photographer

Show a photograph to a child, and
the youngster will point to it, trace its image, and respond with a variety of
emotions. Show another to an adult, and you get a frown, a smile, or a
gesture—rarely will you draw a blank. Then show a photo, or a series of photos,
to people at any level, and they’ll respond with many different ideas that will
lead to the creation of many interesting poems, essays, and other works.

Why do students respond so
enthusiastically to graphic images? Here’s one theory. Early humans drew
pictures on the walls of caves. That’s visual orientation, the kind of
communication that doesn’t depend on the written word. Then along came paper
and ink, and with them, word orientation. Meticulously copying texts, monks
labored for centuries with this kind of mindset. True, they also embellished
these works with colorful designs and images—the illuminated manuscript— but
the text prevailed and the visual orientation of the cave was slowly being
edged out by attention to the written word.

Then came the printing press
followed by machines that could set type and reproduce images that would have
astounded the medieval monks who labored in their cells. Later, during the 19th
Century, innovators discovered how to capture images on film, and still
photographs and motion pictures were born. During the 20th Century,
children in schools found themselves in groups called “Bluebirds” and “Robins,”
where they were encouraged to master the printed word. Frozen in time, little
Johnny and Betty roamed the pages of primary readers or scratched out weekly
compositions on topics like “My Vacation” or “My Favorite Pet.”

Today the pendulum of history is
swinging back toward an emphasis on visual images. The explosion that began
with the invention of photography recalled our early attempts to communicate by
drawing on the walls of caves. From still photography came motion pictures.
Then came television, and what was a trickle burst into a torrent. It was, in a
sense, a return to the cave. Finally, the digital revolution has converted the
torrent of images into a tsunami that floods the senses and is virtually
impossible to ignore.

Often maligned but never out of
sight, these visual images captivate us. Show students a simple photograph of
waves beating against the shore and you’ll be amazed by their responses. Some
will recall memories of seaside childhoods; others will visualize sea stories,
shipwrecks, mysteries of the deep, and more. Still others will venture into the
abstract—the world of simile, metaphor, and personification—perhaps
transcribing a bit of themselves into their writing.

For
teachers who recognize the power of photographic images to inspire writing, the
rewards are great. No longer will students complain, “I don’t know what to
write about.” Why is this so? Perhaps it is because there is something magical
about photographs; something that causes students to respond spontaneously and
creatively; something that reaches into the subconscious and triggers
responses.

A Light Bulb

One of the many good things about
using photos to inspire writing in the classroom is that you do not have to
look very far to discover suitable images. Consider, for example, a simple
photo of a light bulb and the ideas it triggered in the mind of Becky Brown, a
student at Peak To Peak Charter School, Lafayette, Colorado.

Inspiration

So cheerful

Yet so grim

The inspiration hits.

The pencil caresses paper

Turning dreams into realities.

The words flow freely,

Unhindered.

Simply written as thought,

As fragments pieced together

From disorganization to art.

The pencil writes still,

As if it has a mind of its own.

The words just keep coming

And you sit, helpless to stem the
flow

Like the mouse versus the mountain.

You keep your head down

Oblivious to the world

Until the poem is done

And the inspiration trickles away

Like the stream in the desert.

It
could be that digging into students for personal responses, abstract notions,
creative concepts, and subconscious ideas is the real value of using
photographs to inspire writing. But that is not the end. Photographs can also
be used to teach such writing skills as sense impressions, cause and effect,
and analysis.

A Simple Photo

No
photograph is too simple or mundane to stimulate writing. Take, for example, a
picture of the exterior of a deserted house. Gloomy and low-keyed, it lends
itself to many interpretations. But it also makes possible the teaching of many
skills. “What’s the difference,” you might ask, “between the appearance of the
structure shown in the photo and the way it must have been when it was new?
What do you think happened to the people who once lived in this house?”
Responses will vary, of course, but quite often a student will come up with a
gem like the following by Eve Milrod, a student at Baldwin Senior High School,
Baldwin, New York.

Scarred and Pitted

The old house is scarred

And pitted. It once

was smooth and shiny.

Its windows are two eyes

Gazing out at nowhere

Devoid of glass.

Shadows lurk inside

Reminders, it would seem

Of long forgotten occupants.

Man's Best Friend

Even
a simple photo of a dog painted on a doorway can serve as inspiration for
writing. A student of psychology, astronomy, and philosophy at Massbay College
in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Rose Scherlis responded to this image with the
following poem.

The Dog With No Name

Your furry head peeked out at me

So I dropped some fried
plantain for you to enjoy.
You lived on a banana field in
Costa Rica,
And it was beautiful, but the
pesticides
For years underneath your delicate
paws
Had twisted them until they grew
like poison ivy
Bent in the wrong directions.
Your ear was tattered, a page in a
book
With the corner folded down,
Signs of an ongoing war
With a world so menacing
When seen from way down there.
But still your tail wagged
Like a stick in the hand of a
drummer,
And your fur shone
Mottled with brown splotches,
Just puddles of mud
Surrounding your two copper eyes.

Paired with such keywords as dogs,
loyalty, friend, and dedication, this photo—or one that is
similar—will trigger ideas leading to student writing, either poetry or prose.
What’s more you can always add a quotation like this one by Gilda Radner to
encourage even more creative thinking: “I think dogs are the most amazing
creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role models for
being alive.”

Different Points of View

And how about an exercise in point of view? Using the photo of
the protester shown here, divide the class into groups of twos, and ask the
members of each group to respond in writing from the point of view of either
the woman holding the sign or an observer who disagrees with the sign’s
message. Some students may choose to do this in the form of a dialogue. If you
really like to organize things, arrange other appropriate photographs into such
opposing themes as children and senior citizens, urban and rural, handcrafting
and mass production, leisure and industry—whatever will elicit responses from
student writers.

Perhaps
by now you are thinking of other ways in which you can inspire writing by using
photographs as stimuli. Here are just a few. (1) Use family photos to encourage
writing about parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, (2) Use photographs to
trigger the writing of haiku, (3) Create an anthology containing student photos
and the written works the photos inspired, (4) Use photographs to encourage
students to act out what they see in the photos before they write about them,
(5) Simply project several photographs on a screen without comment and let the
students take it from there.

In
the long run, what approach you take really doesn’t matter. When you use
photographs to inspire writing, the images speak for themselves. What’s more,
the poetry or prose your students will create will be more honest and
meaningful than most other student writing you have read.

About
the Author

A
veteran of the Korean War, Hank Kellner is a retired Associate Professor of
English currently based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of 125
Photos for English Composition Classes (J. Weston Walch, 1978); How to Be a Better Photographer (J.
Weston Walch, 1980); Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing (Prufrock
Press, 2009); and, with Elizabeth Guy, the co-author of Reflect and Write:
300 Poems and Photographs to Inspire Writing (Prufrock Press, 2013). His
other writings and photographs have appeared in hundreds of publications
nationwide. Visit his blog at hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com, and read more
about using photographs to inspire writing at
http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/.

Monday, June 17, 2013

In this blog I usually write aboutusing photographsto inspire writingin the classroom. Please visit the archives for more information on this topic.

In this installment of English Education, however, I want to introduce you to my newest novel, The Lucky Star House of Celestial Pleasures. Please read the book information shown below to find out more about this work, which is available as an eBook or pdf for just $1.99. Ordering information follows the text.

The
Amazing Journey of Winston Finn and Liberty Belle

Politically
incorrect in every way, this satirical novel pokes fun at just about every
aspect of our society. Reminiscent of the writings of Voltaire and other great
satirists, The Lucky Star House of Celestial Pleasures takes the reader
on a rollicking journey that spares no person or institution as it satirizes
both men and women with all of their warts and blemishes.

After Winston
Finn's wife of many years leaves him to live with her girlfriend in Mississippi,
the distraught retired stockbroker decides to travel and see the world. Early
on, he meets Liberty Belle, a young former army nurse and airline flight
attendant. Because Winston and Liberty have similar interests, they decide to
embark on their journey together.

During their
travels, they encounter such characters as Father Flanagan and his conversion
extraordinaire, Olivia Stockton and the Society for the Prevention of
Erotic Relationships with Men (SPERM); Captain Fung Goo and the Chinese pirates;
Alandra the Moon Goddess; Willa Catheter and Captain Hashimototo; and a host of
others

At one point
in the novel, Liberty—or Libby as she prefers to be called—relates how she was
captured by Captain Fung Goo; sold into slavery at the Lucky Star House of
Celestial Pleasures in Thailand; and eventually escaped while at the same time
taking revenge on her nemesis, General Mortimer (Kickass) Shostakapulski.

At the
conclusion of the novel, three terrorists from Paducastan who are guest
students at a community college in New York kidnap our hero and heroine, spirit
them away to a remote cabin in the woods, and plan to train them to become
suicide bombers. But when Libby outwits Abdul bin Pasquelante, Mohammed bin
Rashid, and Mahmud bin Pudendum; the two travelers are able to escape.

About the Author: Hank Kellneris a retired associate
professor of English. He is the author of 125 Photos for English Composition
Classes (J. Weston Walch, 1978); Terror at Mirror Lake (Smashwords,
2013); I Don’t Wanna Be an Orange Anymore (Smashwords, 2013); The
Taste of Appalachia (Smashwords 2013); How to Be a Better Photographer (J.
Weston Walch, 1980), Write What You See (Prufrock Press, 2010), and,
with Elizabeth Guy Reflect and Write: 300 Poems and Photographs to Inspire
Writing Prufrock Press, 2013). His other writings and photographs have
appeared in hundreds of publications nationwide.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Guest Blog

This weekI'm delighted to present a guest blog by poet, avid gardener, mother of four, and prolific reader Elizabeth Guy. Impressed by the power of photographs to inspire writing, Guy often uses them to trigger ideas that lead to the creation of poems and other forms of writing.

Every Photo Tells a Story

More and more often in my travels here and abroad, I see
young couples entangled in a romantic embrace, lip-locked like barnacles to the
hull of a ship.It’s sometimes quite
bemusing.Often I wonder, “What does
she see in him?”

My co-author, Hank Kellner, loves
to do street photography and has amassed albums of his work.I enjoy leafing through those images and
choosing one or another to inspire a poem or a story.

Take for example this couple, caught by Kellner’s
lens exchanging a kiss along one of the river walks that edges the shores of
New York City.The following photo and
poem combination was first published in our book, Reflect & Write:300 Poems and Photographs to Inspire Writing (Prufrock
Press 2013).

For anyone not
familiar with the name Zac Efron, feel free to substitute the name of any man
whose mere physical countenance makes women sigh with longing and get all
starry-eyed.

“Anyone who’s a
kisser I’m always interested in.”-
Cher

No Zac Efron

He’s no Zac Efron

I’m sure you’d agree,

But he’s kind of cute I think.

With a slow easy smile

That’s part of his style

And a little “come here” wink.

His tattoos cover much that’s not seen

But at least there’s no ring in his nose.

‘Though his brain’s not too keen,

If you know what I mean,

And he favors the oddest of clothes,

Yet, he’s the one I chose.

I don’t understand it myself.

I guess the answer is this—

‘Though he belches and scratches and snores,

Often sucks his teeth with a hiss,

When he takes me in his arms

I simply cannot resist,

As he lowers his lips to mine—

Oh my!He can
certainly kiss!

~Elizabeth Guy

Ah yes, when Spring is in the air, the pheromones fly everywhere!Even old codgers are not
immune.

I remember several years ago when a widowed friend became
romantically involved with a gentleman and their relationship turned
serious.Her son asked her, “Why him,
Mom?”She told me afterwards in
confidence, “I really couldn’t explain it at the time.I mean, you can’t tell your son something
like, ‘Well, when he kisses me I melt like an ice cream pop in a steam room!’”

For more photos and information not included in this blog,
please visit http://www.prufrock.com/Reflect-and-Write-P1752.aspx.
Reflect and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords;
quotations; either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore”
section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet
Resources” section, and more. Includes CD with photos and poems from the book. Reflect
and Write: 300 Poems and Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner and
Elizabeth Guy (Prufrock Press, 2013), 153 pages, $24.95.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

What do
you do when your brain becomes oatmeal, your fingers become lead, and you watch
the cursor on your monitor blink endlessly without moving even one millimeter?
Brew another cup of coffee? Vacuum the rugs? Take the dog out for a walk? Pray
for inspiration?

“I wasn’t
born to vacuum rugs,” writes Elizabeth Guy, poet, storyteller, and co-author of
Reflect and Write.“That’s why,
when my brain turns to stone while I struggle for new ideas, I use photographs
for inspiration.”

Visit the “Power
of Photos to Inspire Writing” Archives

Whether
you’re a teacher, a student, an aspiring writer, a professional writer, or a
poet, you’ll discover that the photos and ideas posted here during the past
weeks will help you overcome the dreaded “writer’s block,” while at the same
time inspiring you to create new and exciting works of prose and poetry.

Sometimes
direct quotations accompany the photos. At other times, suggested first lines
serve as motivation for writing. Occasionally, specific suggestions present
challenges. From time to time, keywords stimulate ideas.

Please
note: feel free to download the photos for your personal use as inspiration;
for use in classrooms or workshops; or for use in your blog with credit to Hank
Kellner and a link to hankpix-englisheducation.blogspot.com. For commercial use
please contact the author for rates.

Finding Your Muse

Student writer Becky Brown uses a photo of an incandescent light bulb as
motivation for writing a six-paragraph poem dealing with finding inspiration
for writing. In her poem she concludes that the writing process is a solitary
one.

“You simply sit down at
the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.”

–Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith

Inspiration

So cheerful

Yet so grim

The inspiration hits

And the pencil caresses the paper

Turning dreams to realities.

The words flow freely

Unhindered by the conscious mind

Simply written as thought

As fragments piecing themselves together

From disorganization to art.

The pencil writes

As if it has a mind of its own.

The words keep coming

And you sit, helpless to stem the flow

Like a mouse versus a mountain.

You keep your head down

Oblivious to the world

Until the poem is done

And the inspiration trickles away

Like a stream in the desert.

Keywords:writing, poetry, create, author

Questions to Consider:(1) When you write, do you find the words “flow freely”
until the inspiration trickles away? (2) Do you often find yourself inspired to
write? (3) How does it feel when you do? (4) How does it feel when you don’t?
Think of imagery and metaphors to describe these sensations.

New Book Presents Recollections of a Boy’s Childhood During World War II

Growing up in the fictional town of
Meadowview, young Willie Watson objects to being required to play the part of
an orange in the school play when he is nine and in the fourth grade. But
that's just the beginning of his problems. As he continues through elementary
school, Willie has to deal with the town bully; Christmas with his relatives;
the death of a schoolmate; the loss of his girlfriend; the theft of a fountain
pen; his broken eyeglasses, and much more.

Included in this book are such
chapters as "There Is No Santa Claus," "Oh Captain, My
Captain," "The Dog in the Rhinestone Collar," "A Bird's
Just a Bird," and "Hey Brucie, Your Sister Wears Long
Underwear."

Readers will enjoy these humorous and often touching
descriptions of a young boy's experiences as he grows up in a small town many
years ago. See sample pages and buy this eBook at
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/312279

Exciting,
Spine-Tingling, and Difficult, to Put Down

For a psychological thriller that
will keep you turning pages long after everyone else has fallen asleep, don't
miss Terror at Mirror Lake.

Terror lurks in the shadows of
Mirror Lake. Secrets of sex, lies, and death are all patiently waiting to
surface from its murky depths.

The small, sleepy town of
Hamptonville seems the last place you would find sadistic sex, drugs,
blackmail, and murder. But that's exactly what Bruce Orum and his girlfriend
Cindy Garvey encounter when they flee from New York City after having killed
another girl. In Hamptonville they meet Luke
Downing, a psychopath who soon uses drugs to control Cindy and make her his sex
slave. A cruel, vicious character, Downing showed all the classic symptoms of a
cold-blooded killer from the time he was a boy growing up with an imaginary
friend who encourages him in his perversions until he became and adult. Having dominated Cindy, Downing
uses her to seduce two fishermen, Pete Engstrom and Hal Bonnacker, when they
visit Mirror Lake, after which he plans to blackmail them. Although Cindy
seduces the men, she double crosses Downing, disappears, and the men get away.For the next few months Engstrom
and Bonnacker express guilt over what happened at the lake. They decide to
return to the scene to find Cindy. Sensing a problem, their wives decide to
accompany them.At Mirror Lake Downing takes the
two couples prisoner and plans to torture and humiliate them before killing
them. But he does not know that Sheriff Jeff Parker and Molly Hutchison are on
his trail and determined to stop him.From page one all the way to the
breathtaking ending, you will find yourself on pins and needles waiting to see
what happens on the next page.

Reflect
and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations;
either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a
“Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources”
section, and more. This collection will help stimulate discussion that will
trigger meaningful writing at many levels.Includes CD with photos and poems from the book.

Write What You See: 99 Photos
to Inspire Writing is a collection of photographs and writing prompts
designed to inspire writing. In addition to the many photos and ideas it
presents, this collection includes a section that cites “Ten Ways to Use
Reflect and Write” as well as a second section titled “How Some Teachers Use
Photos to Inspire Writing” An added bonus is a CD with photos and writing
prompts.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

What do
you do when your brain becomes oatmeal, your fingers become lead, and you watch
the cursor on your monitor blink endlessly without moving even one millimeter?
Brew another cup of coffee? Vacuum the rugs? Take the dog out for a walk? Pray
for inspiration?

“I wasn’t
born to vacuum rugs,” writes Elizabeth Guy, poet, storyteller, and co-author of
Reflect and Write.“That’s why,
when my brain turns to stone while I struggle for new ideas, I use photographs
for inspiration.”

A New Photo Every
Week

Whether
you’re a teacher, a student, an aspiring writer, a professional writer, or a
poet, you’ll discover that the photos and ideas posted here during the coming
weeks will help you overcome the dreaded “writer’s block,” while at the same
time inspiring you to create new and exciting works of prose and poetry.

Sometimes
direct quotations will accompany the photos. At other times, suggested first
lines will serve as motivation for writing. Occasionally, specific suggestions
will present challenges. From time to time, keywords will stimulate ideas.

Please
note: feel free to download the photos for your personal use as inspiration;
for use in classrooms or workshops; or for use in your blog with credit to Hank
Kellner and a link to hankpix-englisheducation.blogspot.com. For commercial use
please contact the author for rates.

Student writer Christiana Pontier’spoem “Still the Bells” begins with a
question, asks several more questions, and concludes with a final question. Is
it possible to answer these questions? What might the bells represent? Why is
the poet so concerned with them? The answers to these and other questions will
provide inspiration for many different kinds of writing.

Still the Bells

Why do your bells ring?

Why do they ringle and jingle?

Jingle and jangle?

Why do they ring?

Is there no hand to stop them?

Is there not a hand

escorted by
the sun’s valiant rays,

reaching
out to still them?

To stop them?

To stop them altogether?

To still them

Forever?

Keywords:bells, alarm,
sunlight, disturbance

Challenge:Writetwo or more paragraphs in which you describe the ringing of a bell from
the point of view of at least two different people.

Possible Opening Lines:

As a
student sitting in class waiting for the bell, sometimes I feel that a minute
can seem like an hour. For example, …

or

On the
other hand, as teacher, I’ve found that the bell that signals the end of class
sometimes seems to ring too soon. I remember one time when…

Growing up in the fictional town of
Meadowview, young Willie Watson objects to being required to play the part of
an orange in the school play when he is nine and in the fourth grade. But
that's just the beginning of his problems. As he continues through elementary
school, Willie has to deal with the town bully; Christmas with his relatives;
the death of a schoolmate; the loss of his girlfriend; the theft of a fountain
pen; his broken eyeglasses, and much more.

Included in this book are such
chapters as "There Is No Santa Claus," "Oh Captain, My
Captain," "The Dog in the Rhinestone Collar," "A Bird's
Just a Bird," and "Hey Brucie, Your Sister Wears Long
Underwear."

Readers will enjoy these humorous and often touching
descriptions of a young boy's experiences as he grows up in a small town many
years ago. See sample pages and buy this eBook at
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/312279

Exciting,
Spine-Tingling, and Difficult, to Put Down

For an adult psychological thriller that
will keep you turning pages long after everyone else has fallen

asleep, don't
miss Terror at Mirror Lake.

Terror lurks in the shadows of
Mirror Lake. Secrets of sex, lies, and death are all patiently waiting to
surface from its murky depths.The small, sleepy town of
Hamptonville seems the last place you would find sadistic sex, drugs, blackmail,
and murder. But that's exactly what Bruce Orum and his girlfriend Cindy Garvey
encounter when they flee from New York City after having killed another girl. In Hamptonville they meet Luke
Downing, a psychopath who soon uses drugs to control Cindy and make her his sex
slave. A cruel, vicious character, Downing showed all the classic symptoms of a
cold-blooded killer from the time he was a boy growing up with an imaginary
friend who encourages him in his perversions until he became and adult. Having dominated Cindy, Downing
uses her to seduce two fishermen, Pete Engstrom and Hal Bonnacker, when they
visit Mirror Lake, after which he plans to blackmail them. Although Cindy
seduces the men, she double crosses Downing, disappears, and the men get away.For the next few months Engstrom
and Bonnacker express guilt over what happened at the lake. They decide to
return to the scene to find Cindy. Sensing a problem, their wives decide to
accompany them.At Mirror Lake Downing takes the
two couples prisoner and plans to torture and humiliate them before killing
them. But he does not know that Sheriff Jeff Parker and Molly Hutchison are on
his trail and determined to stop him.From page one all the way to the
breathtaking ending, you will find yourself on pins and needles waiting to see
what happens on the next page.

See sample pages and buy this
ebook at https:www.smashwords.com/books/view/309191

Two Books That Will Help to Inspire Writing

in the Classroom

Reflect
and Writecontains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations;
either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a
“Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources”
section, and more. This collection will help stimulate discussion that will
trigger meaningful writing at many levels.Includes CD with photos and poems from the book.

Write What You See: 99 Photos
to Inspire Writing is a collection of photographs and writing prompts
designed to inspire writing. In addition to the many photos and ideas it
presents, this collection includes a section that cites “Ten Ways to Use
Reflect and Write” as well as a second section titled “How Some Teachers Use
Photos to Inspire Writing” An added bonus is a CD with photos and writing
prompts.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

If one picture is
worth a thousand words, can one picture inspire a thousand words?

Creative Concepts #8

What do
you do when your brain becomes oatmeal, your fingers become lead, and you watch
the cursor on your monitor blink endlessly without moving even one millimeter?
Brew another cup of coffee? Vacuum the rugs? Take the dog out for a walk? Pray
for inspiration?

“I wasn’t
born to vacuum rugs,” writes Elizabeth Guy, poet, storyteller, and co-author of
Reflect and Write.“That’s why,
when my brain turns to stone while I struggle for new ideas, I use photographs
for inspiration.”

A New Photo Every
Week

Whether
you’re a teacher, a student, an aspiring writer, a professional writer, or a
poet, you’ll discover that the photos and ideas posted here during the coming
weeks will help you overcome the dreaded “writer’s block,” while at the same
time inspiring you to create new and exciting works of prose and poetry.

Sometimes
direct quotations will accompany the photos. At other times, suggested first
lines will serve as motivation for writing. Occasionally, specific suggestions
will present challenges. From time to time, keywords will stimulate ideas.

Please
note: feel free to download the photos for your personal use as inspiration;
for use in classrooms or workshops; or for use in your blog with credit to Hank
Kellner and a link to hankpix-englisheducation.blogspot.com. For commercial use
please contact the author for rates.

Flower Power

Adjunct
Professor of English Laura Pastuszek teaches a course titled Writing and
Communications for Teachers. In her nature-related poem “Continuity,” a flower
speaks as if it were human. At the same time, the poet identifies with the flower and uses
its qualities to express appreciation for her place in the world around her.

Continuity

I am full of life

as my presence

fills the air with

sweetness.

Others delight in my beauty

and I am grateful for the

branches that undergird me.

For without them

I would not be

A place of refuge

For others to know

and feel welcomed to

create new life

placing an imprint of the process

on my safe and supple petals.

Class
discussion based on this poem-photo combination can help students think of the
elements of nature they might compare themselves to. Then, using
personification, some students may choose to write poems in the same style as
“Continuity.”Others may choose to
create prose that reflects their relationship with or understanding of nature.
Still others may find inspiration in the words of the poet John Greenleaf
Whittier: “The continuity of life is never broken; the river flows onward
and is lost to our sight.”

Keywords: refuge, life, nature, reproduction

Challenge:Write a poem or story in which you describe your existence from the
point of view of an inanimate object.

Possible Opening Line: You can believe me when I say
that the life of a cell phone isn’t an easy one. All day long and even into the
night…

For a
psychological thriller that will keep you turning pages long after everyone
else has fallen asleep, don't miss Terror at Mirror Lake.

Terror lurks in the shadows of
Mirror Lake. Secrets of sex, lies, and death are all patiently waiting to
surface from its murky depths.The small, sleepy town of
Hamptonville seems the last place you would find sadistic sex, drugs,
blackmail, and murder. But that's exactly what Bruce Orum and his girlfriend
Cindy Garvey encounter when they flee from New York City after having killed
another girl. In Hamptonville they meet Luke
Downing, a psychopath who soon uses drugs to control Cindy and make her his sex
slave. A cruel, vicious character, Downing showed all the classic symptoms of a
cold-blooded killer from the time he was a boy growing up with an imaginary
friend who encourages him in his perversions until he became and adult. Having dominated Cindy, Downing
uses her to seduce two fishermen, Pete Engstrom and Hal Bonnacker, when they
visit Mirror Lake, after which he plans to blackmail them. Although Cindy
seduces the men, she double crosses Downing, disappears, and the men get away.For the next few months Engstrom
and Bonnacker express guilt over what happened at the lake. They decide to
return to the scene to find Cindy. Sensing a problem, their wives decide to
accompany them.At Mirror Lake Downing takes the
two couples prisoner and plans to torture and humiliate them before killing
them. But he does not know that Sheriff Jeff Parker and Molly Hutchison are on
his trail and determined to stop him.From page one all the way to the
breathtaking ending, you will find yourself on pins and needles waiting to see
what happens on the next page.

See sample pages and buy this
ebook at https:www.smashwords.com/books/view/309191

Two Books That Will Help to Inspire Writing

Reflect and Write contains more
than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations; either “Inspiration” or
“Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire
Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources” section, and more. This
collection will help stimulate discussion that will trigger meaningful writing
at many levels.Includes CD with photos
and poems from the book.

Write What You See: 99 Photos
to Inspire Writing is a collection of photographs and writing prompts
designed to inspire writing. In addition to the many photos and ideas it
presents, this collection includes a section that cites “Ten Ways to Use
Reflect and Write” as well as a second section titled “How Some Teachers Use
Photos to Inspire Writing” An added bonus is a CD with photos and writing
prompts.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Words and pictures
can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone.

William Albert Allard, American Photographer

What do you do when your brain becomes
oatmeal, your fingers become lead, and you watch the cursor on your monitor
blink endlessly without moving even one millimeter? Brew another cup of coffee?
Vacuum the rugs? Take the dog out for a walk? Pray for inspiration?

“I wasn’t
born to vacuum rugs,” writes Elizabeth Guy, poet, storyteller, and co-author of
Reflect and Write.“That’s why,
when my brain turns to stone while I struggle for new ideas, I use photographs
for inspiration.”

Creative Concepts # 7

A New Photo Every
Week

Whether
you’re a teacher, a student, an aspiring writer, a professional writer, or a
poet, you’ll discover that the photos and ideas posted here during the coming
weeks will help you overcome the dreaded “writer’s block,” while at the same
time inspiring you to create new and exciting works of prose and poetry.

Sometimes
direct quotations will accompany the photos. At other times, suggested first
lines will serve as motivation for writing. Occasionally, specific suggestions
will present challenges. From time to time, keywords will stimulate ideas.

Please
note: feel free to download the photos for your personal use as inspiration;
for use in classrooms or workshops; or for use in your blog with credit to Hank
Kellner and a link to hankpix-englisheducation.blogspot.com. For commercial use
please contact the author for rates.

The Return of Watermelon
Pickle…Almost

I’d been teaching for six years
when Stephen Dunning’s Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle was
published in June 1966. Because that delightful book featured 114 modern poems
accompanied by exciting photographs, it soon became a favorite with English
teachers who wanted to teach poetry.Many
teachers, however, realized that when the photographs that appeared in Reflections
were viewed apart from the poems, they were powerful incentives to writing.
Other teachers discovered that the combination of a photograph and a poem
triggered students’ imaginations and helped to inspire writing.In the photograph, the
extremes of light and darkness suggest ideas that students can translate into
writing. In the poem “Diamonds on Velvet” the narrator introduces thoughts that
many people share at one time or another. Together, the photograph and the poem
can introduce ideas that will trigger students’ thought processes and help to
create many kinds of written compositions. The possibilities are endless.

Diamonds on Velvet

Like diamonds on black velvet,
Starlight dances on water.
Alone, I sit and think
Of life, and love,
And lesser things like
Who will win the Super Bowl next year?

--Hank Kellner

Challenges: 1. Write a six-line poem that ends with a
whimsical question.

2. Write a brief poem that includes at least one simile or metaphor.

3.Write a description of a
person, place, or thing. Use vivid imagery.

For a psychological thriller that will keep you turning pages long after everyone else has fallen asleep, don't miss Terror at Mirror Lake.

Terror lurks in the shadows of Mirror Lake. Secrets
of sex, lies, and death are all patiently waiting to surface from its murky
depths.The small, sleepy town of
Hamptonville seems the last place you would find sadistic sex, drugs,
blackmail, and murder. But that's exactly what Bruce Orum and his girlfriend
Cindy Garvey encounter when they flee from New York City after having killed
another girl. In Hamptonville they meet Luke
Downing, a psychopath who soon uses drugs to control Cindy and make her his sex
slave. A cruel, vicious character, Downing showed all the classic symptoms of a
cold-blooded killer from the time he was a boy growing up with an imaginary
friend who encourages him in his perversions until he became and adult. Having dominated Cindy, Downing
uses her to seduce two fishermen, Pete Engstrom and Hal Bonnacker, when they
visit Mirror Lake, after which he plans to blackmail them. Although Cindy
seduces the men, she double crosses Downing, disappears, and the men get away.For the next few months Engstrom
and Bonnacker express guilt over what happened at the lake. They decide to
return to the scene to find Cindy. Sensing a problem, their wives decide to
accompany them.At Mirror Lake Downing takes the
two couples prisoner and plans to torture and humiliate them before killing
them. But he does not know that Sheriff Jeff Parker and Molly Hutchison are on
his trail and determined to stop him.From page one all the way to the
breathtaking ending, you will find yourself on pins and needles waiting to see
what happens on the next page.

See sample pages and buy this ebook at https:www.smashwords.com/books/view/309191

Two Books That Will Help to Inspire Writing

Reflect
and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations;
either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a
“Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources”
section, and more. This collection will help stimulate discussion that will
trigger meaningful writing at many levels.Includes CD with photos and poems from the book.

Write What You See: 99 Photos
to Inspire Writing is a collection of photographs and writing prompts
designed to inspire writing. In addition to the many photos and ideas it presents,
this collection includes a section that cites “Ten Ways to Use Reflect and
Write” as well as a second section titled “How Some Teachers Use Photos to
Inspire Writing” An added bonus is a CD with photos and writing prompts.